This invention relates to a machine for making and dispensing iced food products such as granitas, slush drinks and the like.
Machines of this kind, commonly known as crushed-ice drink makers or slush machines, generally comprise a transparent tank, in which a fluid is mixed and chilled and eventually dispensed in the form of a granita or slush drink through a tap mounted near the bottom of the tank.
The tank is closed at the top by a removable lid and contains at the bottom of it an evaporator of a refrigerating circuit and a screw type stirring element.
The tank is generally in the shape of a parallelepiped, with the exception of the bottom of it which is rounded in such a way as to partly surround the substantially cylindrical periphery of the stirrer-evaporator assembly and prevent the formation of zones of stagnant product.
The tank is filled manually from the top by removing the lid and pouring into the tank a mixture of water and/or milk and syrups, or a ready-made mix, depending on the flavor of the product to be dispensed.
In some cases, it may be commercially advantageous for a manufacturer of machines of this kind to deliver a machine to a customer under a contract of loan for use.
Under the contract, the customer is obliged to use the machine solely and exclusively with the product mixes or syrups supplied by the machine manufacturer.
Current machines, however, do not give the manufacturer effective possibilities of checking use of the machine by the customer.
More specifically, the manufacturer has no way of checking—with any degree of certainty—that the customer complies with the contract, that is to say, that the customer uses only the product mixes or syrups supplied by the manufacturer.